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June 29, 2019

We’ve blown 247 saves just this past month. And at least 89 of those were with a multiple run lead in the 9th inning. Surely if we had a competent closer, such as any of the guys on the left, we’d at least be in striking distance of the Yankees, if not alone in first place.

Wait, some of those numbers above are incorrect you say? My bad, I didn’t look up the exact stats, I was just writing based on what this team’s “fans” whine about on twitter, message boards, sports radio and more. If the numbers aren’t quite accurate, they’re at least a good representation of what has happened this season.

We do have a lot of blown saves and have lost a lot of late inning leads – this fact I’m 100% certain on, without having to google the actual numbers.

March 12, 2019

Time for the annual Playing Pepper preview hosted at the Cardinals C70 website, which previews every team. I was again one of the writers asked to answer some questions on the Red Sox. Below are the questions and answers, which are now also up on the C70 site along with what others' prespectives.

Make sure to check there daily for previews of the other MLB teams.

1) What are your thoughts on the offseason? What was good, what was bad, what else should they have done?

It was good that they quickly resigned World Series heroes Steve Pearce and Nate Eovaldi. There was nothing bad. I was disappointed to see Joe Kelly leave, but his value was probably at an all-time high after the postseason he had. A lot of the fandom is concerned about our lack of a proven closer™, but I think the bullpen will sort itself out.

February 17, 2019

I have again been asked to supply a 2019 Red Sox preview for the C70 At The Bat Playing Pepper series which has been hosting previews of every team before the start of each season for several years now. Here was last year's post.

This year I've been asked the following questions:

1) What are your thoughts on the offseason? What was good, what was bad, what else should they have done?

2) How has the afterglow of this championship been different than the last three?

3) Mookie Betts had an incredible 2018. Can he reach those levels again this season?

4) What is your general outlook for 2019? Where will they finish in the division?

5) What’s the biggest question for this team going into the season and what’s the answer to it?

6) What do you expect will give you the most joy watching this team on a regular basis this season?

I have my thoughts on these, and they will be published on C70 on or around March 12 along with thoughts of other Red Sox writers, but I thought I'd give my audience a chance to give me some input. That way I can start my answers somewhere along the lines of "Like most fans, I think that..." or "Contrary to most fans I believe...".

So, what say you, Red Sox Nation? Do you have any strong opinions on any/all of the above questions? I'd love to hear from you. Leave your thoughts on the comments below, or reply on twitter, or email me directly at BaseballRuben AT gmail.

Look back here on March 12th for my full post, and make sure to keep checking C70 for daily previews of other teams.

October 26, 2018

Because they are up 2-0. Period. No real baseball analysis is needed. Don't believe me? Read on....If instead of the outcome of the games being decided by who scores more runs in nine innings, it was based on a simple coin flip, we can build a simple model to see what the probability of winning a Series at any given point would be. And luckily it involves VERY simple math that is easy to understand. For example, the odds of flipping heads two times in a row are 1 in 4 (50% x 50% or 1 in 2 x 1 in 2). So, if a team is down 3-2 in a Series, the probability of them winning both games and taking the Series is 25%.Now, we all know the games aren’t based on coin flips, but I believe using a coin flip model helps to get at least a rough idea of what can be expected. I first mentioned this in 2004. Down 3-0 to the Yankees, the odds of the Red Sox coming back to win didn’t look good. Using a coin flip model, it was easy to see that the odds of winning 4 games in a row (or flipping a coin heads 4 times in a row), was 1 in 16 or about 6%. Now, this doesn’t sound very promising, but it’s not the 1 in a million that people made it sound like. (For comparison purposes, the odds of being dealt pocket aces are 1 in 221. Also not likely, but everybody has had this happen to them, several times if you play poker often enough). Sure, it had never happened in the history of baseball, but only 24 times previously had a team been up 3-0. The Red Sox coming back and winning and making it 1 time in 25, is pretty consistent with what would happen if every game was a coin flip*. It should happen about 1 and half times out of every 25. Once is slightly less than expected, twice is slightly more.Anyhow, without even needing to use any math, it’s obvious that any time the same number of heads and tails have been flipped, the probability of getting a certain number of heads before the same number of tails is the same as tails reaching first (In other words… if teams are tied 1-1, or 2-2, the odds of either team winning a 3 of 5 or 4 of 7 are the same). Going through all the permutations of heads/tails out of 5 or 7 flips, you end up with this chart showing the probability of the leading or trailing team winning, depending on the current Series score:

The Red Sox are up 2-0 right now, based on the above they have an 81% probability of winning 4 games before the Dodgers do. I saw a graphic after Game 2 that said teams with a 2-0 lead have won 84% of the time. This is pretty damn close. The above chart is a useful reference if you ever want a quick and dirty guesstimate of the probability of a team to win given their current situation. It’s not perfect, because it ignores some minor details (specifically, it ignores BASEBALL, and everything related to it), but a handy thing to keep (literally and figuratively) in your back pocket.

(*) Note: I’m NOT saying that the outcome of each game is the same as a coin flip. Obviously some teams are better than others, pitching matchups, home field, injuries etc., all need to be taken into account. But when you get to the World Series, more often than not both teams are at least closely matched up. Even a 100 win talent team is only going to beat a 90 win talent team about 55% of the time in a given game. If we assume that in the previous 24 times, on average, the leading team had a 55% probability of winning each game, the chances of the trailing team coming back are (0.45)4=4% which is one time in 25, matching EXACTLY what has happened.

October 02, 2018

No, it’s not because of their bullpen. Without going into a lot of deep analysis, simply put it’s because there are 10 teams in the playoffs. The Red Sox may have the best one, and may have the best probability of winning it all, but it’s still far from a sure thing, or even a likely thing.

Read on….

The Atlanta Braves made the playoffs 14 seasons in a row from 1991 to 2005, but only won the World Series one time and were considered a disappointment because of it. With eight teams making the playoffs, on average, a team will win once every eight times it gets in there (slightly more if they’re better than the average playoff team, slightly less if they’re worse). Fans and baseball analysts usually grossly overstate this “slightness”. More on that in a minute. Anyways, the Braves would have been expected to win 1.75 times out of those 14. If they had won twice they would have actually exceeded the expected.

But, if they were always the best team in the league surely they should have won more often, you may think. But not necessarily. As I alluded to above, most people overestimate the advantage a better team has over an inferior one. Sure, the better team is more likely to win, but the advantage is typically small. It’s rare in a playoff series to have a team be expected to win with more than a 60% probability.